Ashlyn at 5 months

 

Ashlyn is quite the traveler for a 5 month old.  She has flown three times and been in eight states: AZ, CO, CA, UT, ID, PA, DE, MD, MO. She is a great little traveler mainly because she gets to people watch --her favorite thing to do. Even though she LOVES her own bed she does just fine sleeping in different places just as long as she has her beloved Piggy.  

This month we have definitely seen the biggest changes in Ashlyn.  It seems like everyday she has learned something new or is suddenly interested in different things. At the beginning of her 5th month she was really into rocking back and forth. On several occasions she nearly gave me a fat lip as she slammed her head back and forth while holding her.  She is kind of out of that stage now.  

We started feeding her baby food and she is in love.  She wants to eat everything we are. The other night Mike was holding her in one arm and eating an ice cream cone in the other, and all the sudden she grabbed the middle of the ice cream.  We had given her a bite  of ice cream a few days before and it was clear she remembered what it was because she HAD to have more!   

She discovered her toes and plays with them all the time.

 She isn't a fan of others holding her bottle because she wants to feed herself.  It makes it nice for her mom and dad because all we have to do in the morning is give her a bottle and put the Piggy next to her. I will go and check on her and sure enough there is an empty bottle laying next to her and she is contently snuggling with Piggy.  It is so cute.

She has figured out how to roll from her back to her side. 

Although I miss the days when she would fall asleep curled up in a ball on my chest and how tiny she was, I love how interactive she is now.  It is fun to see her little quirks and preferences show up everyday.  Ashlyn is seriously such a good baby.  We can pretty much take her anywhere with us and she still sticks to her eating and sleeping routine.  We are lovin it while it lasts!  She is our angel baby and we love her to pieces. 

Want to know where I get Ashlyn's cute bows and hand bands???  I seriously get stopped everywhere I go by random women asking where I got them.  My good friend and college roommate, Michelle Gibson, makes them and recently opened an Etsy shop.  Click on the picture below and check it out!

Last weekend we went to the Chalk Art Festival in downtown Denver with our good friends, the Tripps and Gross'. Every time we go downtown we ask ourselves, "why don't we come down here more often?!?"  There is always something going on in Denver.  We just need to make more of an effort to go there. There are so many fun places to shop (including the new H&M that is opening up soon), and fun little restaurants that would be so fun for date nights. I am glad we seized the opportunity to enjoy the Chalk Art Festival this summer.  So fun and so pretty!  Too bad it rained today.

Lauren, Emi, and Me





 

You probably are noticing my ugly logo on my pictures.  Remax suggested that I put a watermark on my work to avoid lawsuits and people stealing the photos.  My friend, Lindsey Marlor, helped me figure out how to do the watermarks, but I just realized that they are going on all of my photos.  I need to figure out how to just put them on my real estate photos.  Anyway, my watermark it's a work in progress so it will look much better and more professional than it appears here.

I made Lauren pose in front of this.  She wasn't too excited to take the picture but years down the road I think she will thank me.  Ha!  How cute is her bump?!?  She is having a girl in like 5 weeks.  We are soooo excited for her and Trevor!

Michael and Emi

It's starting to get hot here and I am not sure how I feel about it. I used to love the heat because it felt amazing after the bone chilling Rexburg winters.  I think I am so used to the cold that the heat makes me uncomfortable, like I am having hot flashes or something.  What is wrong with me?!?  Guess I just need to make good use of the weather and hit up the pool more.

Bolder Boulder 10K

Not going to lie, when my alarm went off at 5:30 a.m. I definitely was regretting signing up for this race. Once we met up with our friends, Jared and Sjanna, and starting driving to beautiful Boulder I was really excited to run.  Mike was unable to run because his knee had been bothering him throughout training so I told him he wasn't allowed to run.  It's not worth messing up your knee for a race.  He was really bummed not to be able to run with me, but he came to cheer me on at the finish line and I was so grateful for that.  Jared, Sjanna's husband, was also planning on running in the race but unfortunately got into a car wreck last month.  Since he is still recovering from the wreck he and Mike dropped Sjanna and me off at the starting line and met us at the finish line. 

Don't strain your eyes.  I am not in this picture. I took it as we were leaving the stadium. 50,000 people ran.  It is the 5th largest 10k in the world.

Sjanna and I ran together.  Our goal was to run the whole race without stopping and we were able to achieve it!   We had a blast.  We just chatted it up, people watched, pumped each other up, and encouraged each other all the way to the finish line.  I think we are going to make this a tradition. 

I also bumped into Brittney and Lindsey(Hadley) Ellsworth.  It was so good to see them.  Oh and thanks Jared for your dork face in our picture.

This is the last .2 stretch of the race.  The last half mile is all up hill until you get to the stadium.  As you are running towards the stadium you get a burst of energy because you can hear all of the people cheering.  It's so cool.

Next month my ward is having a 5k run/walk. If any of you are interested in running it and live in the Denver area let me know.  It's free!  I can give you more info if you want. 

Last week Ashlyn, my mom, and I were in Mesa AZ visiting my Grandma Leona.  It was nice to relax in the warm Arizona sun and drink freshly squeezed orange juice all day from Grandma's orange tree.  Ashlyn is the first great grandchild on my mom's side of the family so we had to get a four generation picture of the girls. Grandma Leona is 84 and still plays golf everyday, doesn't color her hair (only highlights it), dances, dresses cute, and is a zips around in her car like no ones business! Watch out!  She is quite the lady. 

This was Ashlyn's first time in her bathing suit.  We weren't able to put her in the pool because they didn't want baby poop in the pool.  I don't blame them.  So Ashlyn and I just dipped our feet in and hung out under the cabana.  Don't mind my whiteness.  I seriously have not been out in the sun since last August.  We are going to the beach next month so I am definitely going to get some much needed color.

 

So while Ashlyn and I were hangin out under the cabana this older lady comes marching over from across the pool to talk to us.  I figured she wanted to look at Ashlyn, like most people do when you carry around a baby.  I was completely caught off guard when she proceeded to chew me out because, "grand kids and babies are not allowed at the pool during these hours!"  Are you kidding me,  I thought to myself.  First of all, I never put Ashlyn in the pool, and second of all she was hardly being disruptive.  She was like, "Can't you read the sign?!?"
I said, "Well she isn't going in the pool so we are just hanging out under the cabana."
"She isn't allowed to be here AT ALL! If my grand kids aren't allowed to be here during these hours than neither are yours!  I am calling security."
I probably made her even more mad because I just laughed. I couldn't believe she was calling security on a 4 month old. It was comical how hot and bothered she got. All of the other people at the pool were telling her to get a life.  It was funny.  When the security guard showed up he listened to the lady and then came over to talk to us.  The first thing he said was, "Oh how cute is she! I wouldn't handcuff you for a million dollars" and then he gave Ashlyn a kiss. He wanted to hold her so I took a picture. 
The older lady got so mad she stormed off and yelled on her way out, "Fine! I am bringing all of my grand kids back then!"  She never came back.  Anyway, Ashlyn's first pool experience was quite an event!




A little out of order, but this picture was taken the night before Ashlyn and I left. Poor Mike had to go eight days without seeing his baby girl.  He was so happy to see Ashlyn again and couldn't believe how much she had changed in a little over a week.


Ashlyn had her 4 month check up yesterday, which meant she got another round of shots, hence the tear.
Here are her stats:  Height 24 3/4 inches -50%, Weight 13 lbs. 4 oz. 30%, Head circumference 41 1/4/cm- 50%.

She is now on formula, which has made my life a heck of a lot easier.  She has transitioned fine.  The only downfall is now her diapers really stink and she is way more gassy.  I am going to introduce rice cereal this week along with fruit, so that will be fun. 

Memorial Day is the Bolder Boulder and I am actually getting really pumped for it.  While I was in AZ I ran quite a bit, mainly because it was so much easier due to the lower elevation.  Hopefully I can complete the race without stopping.  Wish me luck!!!





Ashlyn is 4 months now! All of my friends who have babies tell me about how by 4 months you have a whole new baby, and now I see how true that is.  In the last two weeks she started laughing, holding her own bottle, and last night she rolled over (stomach to back)!  She is way more interactive and fun now.  Not that she was boring before, but now it is so easy to make her smile and make noises.  She is just getting so darn fun. I notice her personality the most when we are around other babies her age.  I have noticed that she is very easy going, loves to see whats going on, usually has a serious look on her face, and likes to make "hoooo" noises at people.  We have her four month check up next week so I am excited to see her stats. 

She is growing, growing, growing and we are loving every minute we have with her!

Other things going on....   Mike and I are still training for the Bolder Boulder, and let me tell you it has been hard, well for me at least.  I hardly worked out when I was preg.  I am not going to lie, I sat on my butt a lot and ate what I wanted. Never in my life have I been so out of shape. You know when you work out so hard that your lungs hurt?  That's me. I am making progress though and am almost back to my pre preg weight so that makes me happy.  However, that 10k run is always in the back of my mind.  I am determined to do it, even though I really don't want to. Now that the weather has warmed up I have started running outside with my jogger stroller.  Running outside has been much better than on the treadmill, however, I definitely struggle pushing Ashlyn up those hills.  It's good for the rear end though. I am running the race with my good friend, Sjanna, and we both agreed that no matter how slow we run, we are not stopping.  That's my goal.  Wish me luck! The race is Memorial Day so it's crunch time!

I have decided to create a blog for my real estate photography.  All the homes I have done are on there, so feel free to check it out and give feedback if you want. When I get the time I will get a better design layout for the blog, but for now it's just a place to file my work.  www.ljmccabephotography.blogspot.com